


Bishop's Gate

by Oakstone730



Category: His Royal Secret Series - Lilah Pace
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28392246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oakstone730/pseuds/Oakstone730
Summary: What happens the day that James's grandfather dies. Un'betad and Un-Brit Picked. Just a quick one shot that I wrote after reading the His Royal Secret series and wondering how Ben and James would absorb the news.
Relationships: Benjamin Dahan/Prince James
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3





	Bishop's Gate

Ben gave a sigh of relief as the chairwoman of James's charity's stood to give her final remarks. The past two days had been focused on analyzing the results of a yearlong trial of sponsoring micro-grants to women in western African countries and planning for the next year's grants.

It was gratifying to see the statistics and stories that confirmed that their efforts to empower the women in the countries where the grants had more than paid off and Ben was eager to see the micro-grant program expanded across the continent. It had been the first charity Ben took on after he and James had married and he was named Duke of Exeter. That a former Israeli citizen who'd lived in a dozen countries around the world before coming to England should be given a title to make him seem more British was still a bit ridiculous to Ben but it had helped satisfy the nay-sayers so Duke of Exeter he was.

"Bishop's Gate has closed, Your Grace," Scott whispered the words into Ben's ear. For a moment Ben continued to review his own notes in preparation for speaking until the significance of his security officer's words hit him. Bishop's Gate.

Ben slid his tablet back into the leather satchel James had given him for their first Christmas three years earlier and stood. The chairwoman paused as Ben backed towards the exit with an apologetic wave of his arm.

"Excuse me. My sincerest apologies. I'm afraid something has come up." It was awkward and inelegant but Ben didn't really care about the opinion of the people in the room as he exited flanked by his security team. They would understand soon enough and Ben's only concern was getting to James's side as soon as he could.

Scott swiftly led him out of the building, the black sedan was already pulled up to the door. Ben pulled out his mobile as he climbed into the back seat. Unsurprisingly, there was no answer at the landline in their residence or to James's own mobile.

"Where is His Royal Highness?" He leaned forward to ask Scott.

"His Majesty is at Clarence House, Your Grace."

"Not-" Ben started to say and fell silent as the reality hit him and he sank back against the leather seat. King George IX had passed away and James was now the King of the United Kingdom and all of its Commonwealths.

In the year since their quiet civil wedding ceremony, James and Ben had assumed more and more royal responsibilities as the King's ailing health had forced him to retreat from the public eye except for the most ceremonial of duties.

Ben still chafed at the public artifice at the rigmarole and ceremony that was so against his nature but James and even Indigo were guiding him through the rituals of public life, the price he was willing pay to have James in his life.

He gripped the cushioned armrest tightly as he looked out at the pedestrians walking along the pavement on this unseasonably bright autumn afternoon, going about their daily lives not knowing that soon, very soon, the announcement would come.

Bishop's Gate had closed. James's grandfather, the King who'd held the throne for over 53 years had died. The protocol for that announcement and all the pageantry that followed had been reviewed and updated just weeks earlier when a summer cold had developed into a serious case of pneumonia. The King had pulled through the crisis however, enough to travel to Balmoral with the Queen to be on the grounds that he loved most of all.

The car swept into the stable yard and drew to a stop. Ben forced himself to follow protocol and not open the door himself in his haste to reach James. Glover was at the door, a black armband already around his left arm.

"Where can I find His Majesty?"

"In his office, Your Grace."

Ben nodded and swiftly moved through the corridors, his focus on reaching James, although it was hard not to notice the fleet of footmen carrying carefully folded armfuls of black bunting that would be draped from the windows as soon as the announcement was made.

The footman outside of James's office pulled open the door as Ben approached. James was at his side table by the windows with Kimberley Tseng in a black silk dress was at the table speaking, five other staffers around the table.

Kimberly was speaking and Ben didn't want to interrupt but his eye caught James's and Ben instinctively went to stand behind him. James reached back his hand and Ben caught hold of it, squeezing gently as he listened to Kimberly review the schedule for the next few days. James appeared calm but Ben could feel his pulse was racing as he gripped Ben's hand tighter.

"Princess Amelia and her family will be in the air within the hour, Your Majesty," said Kimberley, as she consulted her ever-present tablet. "And the Queen Mother Louisa will stay at Balmoral until after the Sunday church services which she will attend along with His Royal Highness Richard."

"And Nicholas?"

"Is being extracted from his carrier in the North Sea tomorrow morning, weather permitting." Kimberley looked up. "That is all we need to cover for now, Your Majesty. The announcement will be going out shortly." She stood and curtsied, James squeezed Ben's hand tightly as those around the table filed out of the room, bowing and curtsying as they left.

James's shoulders sagged as the door closed and he exhaled a deep breath. Ben reached down and wrapped his arms around him, leaning down to pull James close.

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea. I wouldn't have gone to the meetings if I'd-"

"No, no, you couldn't have known," James said as he pulled Ben to him. "Grandfather didn't wake from his afternoon nap. He went peacefully."

"We couldn't ask for more than that, to slip away without pain," Ben murmured. It was the truth even though the King had been a difficult man, who had only accepted Ben into the royal inner circle because of pressure from the Queen, but it hadn't stopped the King from denigrating James and Ben both with casual slurs and homophobic jokes. But Ben would've had him live another fifty years to save James from the burden of the crown.

"You'll need to change this," James said as he slid his hand along the dark crimson tie that Ben had selected that morning. Ben nodded, knowing there was no use in protesting such a small thing at this time. A tie scarcely mattered when one's husband had just become King.

The House of Hanover was laced with protocol and the rules that governed official funerals and mourning were written out in a document an inch thick. The plan was already in play, Ben knew that at Buckingham Palace two footmen were preparing the long solemn walk to post the official announcement on an easel at the front gates, at the same time that the announcement was being electronically sent around the world via the news services. The King is Dead, Long Live the King, Ben thought as he tightened his arms around James.

"Come with me." James gave a tug to Ben's hand and tight smile. He led Ben down the corridor to a back stairs that Ben knew went down to the kitchens, but instead of going down, James turned and they started heading up.

Three flights up and James shoved open the heavy door marked "Roof Access." James reached down and pulled a piece of wood from the next to the door and put it in place so they wouldn't be locked out of the building. "Indigo and I left that board there twenty years ago and no one's ever bothered to move it," James said with a briefest of smiles at the memory.

Ben's suit coat flapped in the wind that swirled around the rooftop. Ben followed James to the very center of the roof, startling a flight of pigeons to swoop away from their roost. The sound of the city, car horns and traffic, even the distant babble tourists on the Mall rose up and surrounded them.

"What exactly are we doing here?" Ben asked, looking around in the confusion, and then it started. The distant toll of a solitary church bell. James closed his eyes as Ben turned towards the sound, unconsciously counting. By the third knell, another bell had joined in, and then another. Each solemn singular note joined together to announce the death of the monarch. As he listened to the bells he became aware that the traffic noise was fading away, as the drivers slowed and halted in realization of what had happened, no doubt switching radio stations, trying to get the news.

"My father—" James choked up and stopped, taking a deep breath he tried again. "My father told me about when his grandfather passed, how he and Richard had come here to listen to the bells toll and how he'd felt the burden of them, knowing that the next time he heard them he would be King." His shoulders gave another heave and Ben kissed the top of his head, caressing his cheek. "I've never missed him more than right now."

"You will be an amazing King," Ben said, trying to choose his words carefully. "You are the right monarch for this country. You'll make your father so proud."

"And you? Are you sure…" James pulled back, his brow furled with concern.

"You have me, as the Duke of Exeter, King's Consort or whatever title has to be flung at me to make the traditionalists happy. It doesn't matter. You are my home. With you is where I belong." Ben rubbed his thumb along James's jaw, loving the faint bristle of his whiskers.

Ben drew James into his arms as James began to cry, cradling James's head against his neck and rubbing his back, as the bells tolled. Around them the wind swirled, blowing leaves and detris as James sobbed. The king had been 86 years old, Ben didn't even try to count the death knells as he held James tight to him, warm and safe.

Ever since his parents had been ripped from his life with the force of a car bomb he'd been unwittingly searching a place to call home. A place where he belonged. Little did he know that thanks to a chance encounter in the Kenya rainy season three years that place, home, would be in the most unlikely place of all, in the arms of the King of England, but there was no doubt in his mind that he was home.


End file.
